In the Japantown and Fillmore areas, there are closed crosswalks and circuitous pedestrian bridges that are not compliant with accessibility standards for people with disabilities.

In the Japantown area, as depicted in Figure 1-6, some aspects that discourage pedestrian movement and activity include narrow medians and circuitous pedestrian bridges that intimidate some and are not compliant with accessibility standards for people with disabilities.

Spanning Geary Boulevard are two pedestrian bridges at the Webster Street and Steiner Street intersections, where closed crosswalks limit pedestrians‟ ability to cross Geary Boulevard at ground level. These overcrossings are several decades old and, although they provide separation from traffic, are often perceived as an inconvenient way of crossing Geary Boulevard due to the long and indirect ramps, change in elevation required, and some users‟ sense of insecurity. Additionally, the pedestrian overcrossings are not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), hindering the mobility of people with disabilities.

Pedestrian bridges at Steiner Street and Webster Street: These two pedestrian overcrossings would be removed, to eliminate conflicts between these structures‟ piers and the proposed bus lanes, as well as to provide new pedestrian crossings at street grade.

Two pedestrian bridges span Geary Boulevard at the Webster Street and Steiner Street intersections. The grade-separated walkways allow pedestrians to cross over Geary Boulevard. These overcrossings are several decades old and are perceived as an inconvenient way of crossing due to the long and indirect ramps, change in elevation required, and some users’ sense of insecurity. Additionally, the pedestrian overcrossings are not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) due to their average inclines exceeding the ADA standard of a five percent maximum grade (i.e. a slope increasing in elevation by five feet for every 100 feet in length), which makes wheelchair crossings difficult.

Like I said, this is just 20% of the vitriol our SFCTA spewed upon these two bridges in just one document. I get the feeling these SFCTA people would say just about anything to get nine figures from the Feds. I mean if the Feds would give the SFCTA $100,000,000 to recommend keeping everything on Geary EXACTLY THE SAME FOR THE NEXT TEN YEARS, then I’ll bet the we would have gotten a document what extols the virtues of these bridges.

Please join us for a public meeting later this month to update you on the Muir Woods Sustainable Access Project (formerly Muir Woods Site Improvements). This project would preserve resources by improving parking, transit, and pedestrian access at Muir Woods.

Public scoping & comment for the Muir Woods Sustainable Access Project was completed in the fall of 2013. An environmental assessment will be released for public review and comment in the fall of 2016 in compliance with the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA).Comments received on cultural resource issues will also be taken into account while coordinating compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.

But our Teamster drivers from the Central Valley, they don’t seem to want to pull all the way into the stop. I guess overhanging trees are an issue? IDK. So Fell gets blocked a bit for a little while oh well:

Anyway, that’s that, a mystery solved. But look, just one block away is a bus stop (a famous one ’cause it’s just nine second away from another on this very short block, but that’s another story) what has an ad for Zuckerberg Hospital. So, the nine families who are pissed off about the new bus terminal on Fell can think about how they themselves didn’t buy naming rights for SFGH?

Oh, the ad’s on the other side of the bus stop, but it kind of looks like this:

Is this for real – ZSFGcare.org? Hey, instead of just buying naming rights, why didn’t we make Zuck pay for the whole thing? I’m thinking he got off cheap.

We could have gotten more money out of the Zucks, ergo we should have. Hey Zuck, why not make a check out for the difference, like what, half a billion, and make it out to SF General Fund and have somebody drop it off at City Hall. (They’ll know what to do with it.) And then you’ll be a pioneering philanthropist instead of being like all the others.

Like, if you’re name’s going to be on the thing like this forever, then you should have paid for all of it, lock, stock and barrel.

But look – it’s neighbor helping neighbor via a note on the windshield:

And then, by the end of the day, white paint had appeared on the curbs.

So go ahead and park there if you want. The Teamster drivers will call in a tow and then the SFMTA will make a profit off of America’s Highest Administrative Towing Fee. (Hey, you know who’s “addicted to cars” more than anybody else in Frisco? That’s right, it’s the people at the SFMTA. Without all the money it gets, somehow, some way, through car owners, well, our SFMTA would have to have massive layoffs and end up with only 5000(!) employees.)

Anyway, I guess they’re done now, so this is what a 116-foot corporate shuttle bus terminal looks like…

I remember how the SFMTA kicked off its new corporate bus-only terminal on Fell betwixt Masonic and Ashbury as if it were yesterday, or the day before yesterday anyway.

Way back then, the temporary signs notified locals* to not park there and the locals complied. But now we have more permanent signage, see?

The problem is that they’re harder to see. Now you’d think that they could have put one on this metal pole here, but they didn’t:

No no, they’re mounted only on concretey light poles way up high:

So here come the parkers, during the evening drive yesterday, betwixt 4:00 and 8:00 PM:

This Prius is parked right under one of the two news sign. Is this kosher? I can’t tell. I don’t think it is.

Hey SFMTA! Don’t most bus stops / terminals have lines marked out on the street? I think so! Anyway, your three temporary no parking signs were doing a better job than your two brand-new permanent signs, just saying.

On It Goes…

*One time, a Facebook Teamster from Stockton(!)** asked me, “What’s Divisidero?” We were both on Masonic at the time…

**Man, how can you live in Stockton and work in Frisco doing a decidedly non-telecommuting job?

I didn’t see it in operation, but I did see a Nest* (wherever that is) Bus heading away from this area this AM so maybe this 116 feet will be a nest for Nest, and others. Who uses this terminal is a secret, kept by our incompetent SFMTA, for some reason.

I think all these pissed-off people would have needed the relevant city Supervisor to go to bat for them against the SFMTA. I suppose that didn’t happen.

(I’ll tell you, one block away on Hayes, there’s a bus stop for the #21 what’s nine (9) seconds away from another bus stop for the same line. Our weak-willed SFMTA wanted to get rid of one of the stops but a while back but a local bidness owner hired on craigslist to get a “grass-roots” campaign going to sway our swayable Supervisor London Breed. So that’s democracy in action, or not, depending on how you look at it.)

Anyway, the signs say that all this will expire on May 27th, 2016, so we’ll just have to wait and see what the SFMTA wants to do next. Perhaps they’ll install permanent signs soon, IDK…

*Yeah, I need me an expensive Nest thermostat for my 100 year old radiators – I’m sure that would work out real good.

Here it is, looking more like Camp Crystal than what you’d expect to see in Frisco:

Here’s your seating area for the cafe. The worry back in the aughts was that this room was going to go upscale, become an upscale dining establishment. That didn’t happen.

Now back in the day, the old vendor simply raised prices without telling/getting permission from Rec and Park, so today’s prices are basically the same as back in the aughts. The new Family Boat seats six, I figure.

Le Cafe, complete with pink popcorn for sale, as was desired by the alarmist preservationists who supported the former vendor:

Oh, this is new – room rentals

I don’t think the Save Stow Lake people saw this coming, ’cause I don’t recall them complaining about the specter of private parties in a public park, oh well. I think it’s like $100 an hour to have a birthday party in a rented room these days. Naturally, visitors will think a bathroom is where all the people are milling about, so this sign keeps them out and points them across the street, fair ‘nough.

Now if conditions get too rough for you out on the high seas of this quite artificial “lake,” well you can always dial the snack bar and they’ll talk you home, like the air traffic controllers from Airport ’75

So that’s your update.

Now, here’s what’s become of SaveStowLake.org. So who’s selling what here? IDK, but, from Japan, it’s the “Telephone Lady” who has tax tips for you:

What the Facebook Teamsters wanted last year was their own terminal in the 94117, so they wouldn’t have to sit around idling, and I’m srsly, in the slow lane of outbound/southbound Masonic (betwixt Fell and Oak, you know, the one that MUNI buses use all the time) OR in the MUNI stop at Hayes and Masonic (as they’ve been doing every working day, including this morning at 6:43 AM). It looks like they’re getting what they want. Enough space for two buses.

And I call it a terminal since there’s now nothing to prevent the Teamsters from staging in their own dedicated bus stop, AFAICS…

Our incompetent SFMTA* has been sending out postcards that look like this:

So in this case, Hayes won’t have the same old load of corporate buses because Fell Street will be picking up the slack.

Here’s what Hayes looks like these days, sometimes – there’s conflict betwixt MUNI operators in MUNI buses and the Teamsters in the Facebook Buses, who know staging (sitting around) is against the rules but they do it anyway because They Just Don’t Care:

(It’s hard to tell without expanding the photo, but the MUNI bus driver was glaring at the idled Teamster. I’ll tell you, Bro was pissed at the big FB bus, that’s for sure.)

You can look forward to seeing Facebook buses sitting in front of these buildings, especially in the AM:

Basically, these new stops will turn into bus terminals, ’cause the drivers will end up simply parking here on Fell the same way they routinely (and improperly) do so at the outbound #21 Hayes stop one block north. Maybe even non-driving Facebook “starters” will come back, like last year when they hung out across the street closer to Oak.

Oh well.

“PUBLIC HEARING FOR PROPOSED PARKING & TRAFFIC CHANGES Pursuant to SFMTA Order No. 5550 adopted March 4, 2016, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency will hold a public hearing to solicit public input on the following proposed changes. The hearing will be held as follows: Date/Time: Friday, March 18, at 10:00 am Location: Room 416 (Hearing Room 4), City Hall, San Francisco (located on Van Ness Avenue between McAllister and Grove Streets)”